47 



THE RED GROUSE. 

 Red Game. 



Tetrao Scoticus, Lath. 



Is common throughout extensive heathy tracts in Ireland 

 and the adjacent islets ;* 



Being found equally in those barely elevated above the sea and 

 those which empurple the summits of the highest mountains. In 

 the most favoured localities the species was, until of late years, as 

 plentiful in proportion to the extent of heath as in the Highlands 

 of Scotland, and in some districts still is so, but its numbers, 

 generally speaking, have been gradually decreasing from various 

 causes, connected with the operations of man. The birds are 

 not protected with the same jealous care as in Scotland, where 

 the moors are a source of great revenue ; — those of Ireland are, 

 on the contrary, with rare exceptions, reserved by the proprietors 

 for their own or their friends' shooting. It has been remarked 

 to me by sportsmen, that the grouse of Ireland and Scotland 

 differ in size and colour. This is apparently correct when birds 

 of a certain district are compared with those of another ; but it 

 is, in my opinion, a partial view of the subject, as in different 

 localities throughout either the one country or the other, birds 

 will be found equally to vary in these respects. The following 

 observations strikingly illustrate this opinion : — A friend who 

 shot over the moor of Glenroy, Inverness-shire, in 1844, observed 

 that the grouse differed much in their plumage, and were of three 

 varieties, each kind keeping particularly to its own quarters. 

 On the darkest and most heathy ground were the darkest birds, 

 and the largest, weighing generally 2 lb. and sometimes 2 lb. 



* Lieut. Reynolds, R.N., of the Coast Guard Service, an ardent sportman, who 

 was stationed at Achil in 1834, when Mr. R. Ball and I visited the island, stated 

 that neither partridges nor quails were at that time found there. As the island is 

 chiefly covered with heath, grouse might be supposed to be common ; but they were 

 said to be scarce, owing to the number of foxes and other vermin, and the destruction 

 caused by herdsmen's dogs. 



